Misfits: A Personal Manifesto by the creator of 'I May Destroy You'

(Hardback)

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Description

The ground-breaking much-awaited debut by leading British star Michaela Coel. A personal and powerful book about the life-changing power of transparency. From the brilliant mind of the creator and star of I May Destroy You and Chewing Gum comes a passionate declaration against fitting in. Michaela Coel's MacTaggart Lecture touched a lot of people with her striking revelations about race, class and gender. But in the end, the person most impacted was Coel herself. Building on this speech, Misfits immerses readers in her deeply personal vision through powerful allegory and anecdotes - from her East London upbringing to her discovery of theatre and love for storytelling. With inspiring insight and wit, she tells of her reckoning with trauma and metamorphosis into a champion for herself, inclusivity and radical honesty, and in telling her journey invites us to reflect on our own. By embracing our differences, she says, we can transform our lives. An artist to her core, Coel holds up the path of the creative as an emblem of our need to regard one another with care and respect - and transparency. Misfits is a triumphant call for honesty, empathy and inclusion. This timely, necessary book is a rousing coming-to-power manifesto dedicated to anyone who has ever worried about fitting in.

Reviews

Astute ... Coel is a gifted writer. The text is razor-sharp and as funny as I May Destroy You -- Rosie Kinchen * Sunday Times *
Warm and funny ... A perfect truth-teller of our time * ELLE *
Searing ... A call-to-arms book filled with life lessons. Prepare for this to be your self-help bible of 2021 * Sunday Times *
Her narrative power transcends the small screen. Coel's is a voice that jumps off the page, and it's one we're lucky to have applied to whichever story she chooses to tell * Vogue *
Leaps off the page ... [Coel] hits hard: funny, but also direct ... Coel is all about letting go of fear or, at least, of using it to find your way to something better -- Miranda Sawyer * Observer *

This short and sharp piece of non-fiction once again shows Michaela Coel as the magnificent thinker she is ... Misfits is profound, hilarious, devastating and breathtakingly beautiful all at once

* gal-dem *
Misfits is, to be clear, a manifesto - a statement of values, a call to arms. True to the form, you'll be urging it on people ... Coel's manifesto does not attempt to be comprehensive or systematic, but it's clear on what it wants to do and does it very well ... I suspect it bears the same relation to the sum total of Coel's intellect that The Communist Manifesto does to Marx's. I am very glad both books exist -- Naoise Dolan * Irish Times *
Coel makes her literary debut with a slim manifesto written with the same perfect balance of sentiment, insight and wit that made viewers fall in love with her on the screen * Time magazine *
By turns wryly comic and devastating ... [Misfits] codifies her efforts to achieve transparency in her work and in her life -- Dave Itzkoff * New York Times *

A small book with big ideas that provides revealing snapshots of a career in television from the vantage point of an outsider ... That Coel's original speech didn't bring about an instant revolution in the industry would surely justify its transformation into a book ... A remarkable talent

-- Fiona Sturges * Guardian *
A sharp must-read for misfits everywhere -- Sharon Lougher * Metro *
A riposte to what society deems as acceptable and how we can make change happen through empathy and a celebration of difference -- Francesca Brown * Stylist *
The work of the writer and actor Michaela Coel is not the kind you linger over, but the kind you swallow in a single gulp ... In Misfits this narrative is given the rhythm and flow of speech; reading, you feel as though you were hearing it live ... a piece of writing that remains as relevant as it is powerful -- Sarah Manavis * New Statesman *

Author Bio

Michaela Coel is the creator of the hit TV shows Chewing Gum and I May Destroy You. She is a BAFTA, Royal Television Society, Broadcasting Press Guild and NAACP prize-winning actor, screenwriter and director. In 2020, she was included in Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people and British Vogue's list of most influential women. Misfits is her first book.